The Ria Formosa is one of the most important wetlands in Portugal harbouring extensive seagrass meadows and saltmarshes. These ecosystems present a disproportionate capacity to accumulate and store carbon in their sediments, the so-called Blue Carbon. The protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems are gaining momentum in climate change mitigation strategies (known as Blue Carbon Strategies) as they are net CO2 sinks thus attenuating the increasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The student will take part in ongoing fieldwork and laboratory work to assess Blue Carbon stocks in coastal vegetated ecosystems (seagrass meadows, salt marshes, macroalgae) in the Ria Formosa lagoon (south Portugal). Fieldwork involves sampling of sediment cores, sampling of vegetation biomass, and habitat mapping. Laboratory work involves estimating vegetation traits (e.g. morphology, biomass) and determining sediment geochemical characteristics (e.g. organic matter content, grain size). The student will be also trained for data entry and storage and basic data analysis using R programming language.